On the Shelves

Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin[4] has so many jaw-dropping moments of visual splendor that it takes a while to realize that there’s really nothing much of interest here except the jaw-dropping visual splendor.

If Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol[6] feels like a live-action version of a cartoon, it only stands to reason. The man behind the camera is animator Brad Bird, who gave us some of the smartest and most ambitious animated features of recent years.

Steven Spielberg’s War Horse[8] is big and gorgeous in ways that reminds of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. But while it often delighted my eye, it felt empty. Not even a deep cast of British actors could bring it to emotional life.

In Martha Marcy May Marlene[12] writer/director Sean Durkin delivers a moody, almost unbearably creepy look at a survivor of a Manson-type cult. And along the way he gives us a new star: Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of the Olsen Twins.